Oh, man, Chapter 10 is getting dark, folks! Pharaoh is holding on to the shred of power he has left at every cost. His kingdom’s future looks so grim, though, that even his officials have turned on him. Sadly, the officials don’t ask pharaoh to give in because they are convinced of God’s power; they think Moses is responsible for all this destruction. In verse 7, they ask pharaoh how long he is going to let “this man” hold them hostage. They also finally speak up and tell pharaoh, “For Pete’s sake, just let them go worship their God. Who cares! What’s it to you???” This most likely would be considered defecting to the other side … or treason! Verses 21-23 sucked me in big time. Imagine being trapped in a “darkness so thick you can feel it.” I envisioned some of the super humid nights in Cambodia when the power would go off while we were sleeping. The second the air from the fans stopped circulating, we would all wake up in the still air nearly blind from the darkness and completely covered in sweat. I imagined three dark days and full nights of that. Creepy. No thanks. (I also imagined the Thai boys trapped in a cave for two weeks. I can’t even go there without crying.) The very last line also sent chills down my spine, and I sort of scripted it in my mind:
“Very well, I will never see your face again,” Moses replies (in a sympathetic voice).
[Moses looks pharaoh in the eye. The two men hold a gaze for 2-3 seconds before Moses turns slowly and walks away. Camera fades as Moses exits the door of the interior court.]
And the whole audience thinks, RIP pharaoh.
After the locusts sweep through the land and gobble up every last morsel left in sight, pharaoh almost seems sincere in his confession and plea for forgiveness, but God knows better and wants to get his point across. This chapter, right from the beginning (v. 1-2), highlights again God’s reasons for punishing pharaoh and the people of Egypt so harshly: so I can display; so you can tell; so you will know – the moral of many a Bible tale.
Writing prompt: dark
I went to the toilet one night, and I noticed as I was sitting there in a half-daze that I could not see a blasted thing. Both doors of the bathroom were closed, and not a single dot of light was getting in. I mean, it was the middle of the night, so not many dots of light were available, but still, I had never experienced complete darkness like that, at least not in my own home. I spent some time in the now non-existent dark rooms of several newspaper offices, but sitting on your own toilet in the dark is a different experience altogether. We also don’t have air in our bathroom, so it was still and dark and quite hot – much like those sweaty nights in Cambodia that I described above. But, oh, what a joy when I opened the door to a small amount of light and a cool breeze in the bedroom! And oh, what a feeling we had in Cambodia when the power would come back on, the fans would start whirling again, or even a strong breeze would blow through the window sometimes! If we had not experienced that darkness, we never would have appreciated the relief. What’s the darkest place you’ve ever been? Write about it (physically or metaphorically) and how good it felt when you were released from it.
jugglingfire.com 